Death in the Shadows
by Daughter of Ironman06
Summary: Everyone Fears death, and theirs a reason for it. Based on Lady Death from the Marvel Universe ( If you don't know who she is, look her up ).


It was a cold early morning in the neighborhood. The bare tree branches sway in the breeze, and the autumn leaves fall to the wet grass as a brown hair headed girl runs past. The pounding of pavement from her shoes could be heard from 10 feet away, her bruised and ripped sneakers scratching the ground. Her raspy breath clouded her hearing as she runs to her desired destination. Her pale grey eyes filled with tears from the cold wind crashing into her face, but she didn't mind. She was used to it, running to school at 7:00 in the morning after sleeping in, afraid of being tardy. In the distance, "C'mon Carter, c'mon, you can do it. " the girl muttered, now known as Carter, said to herself as a bricked two story building came to view.

Trimmed vines covered the sides of the building as the early sunlight above the was caught on the windows, blinding her eyes. As she saw the entrance door, and the words PARKSTON HIGH SCHOOL in bold silver letters above them. Carter soon came to a halt, panting as faint droplets of sweat dribbled down her face, thankfully not making mascara marks on her pale colored skin. Other students her age and older soon appearing, running to catch the last minute bell to class. Carter walked instead, taking smaller, but deep breaths, while reaching for her phone in her pocket, checking for any calls, only to find none. "Huh," Carter thought, " I would have expected a call from Lexi by now, she always meets me at the front doors. "

Alexis Darklem, Carter Jedims best and only friend since 4th grade, nearly 6 years ago. Alexis was a likeable person, her lucid personality and cheerful grin making everybody her friend. She excelled in everything, sports, art, and even music. Carter was beyond happy to be Lexi's best friend. Even though she excelled only in writing and art, wore boot cut jeans, sneakers, and t-shirts as her everyday outfit, and was liked by no one. But when Lexi met Carter during lunch in 4th grade, their friendship blossomed ever since. Carter grinned while thinking of all the fun times that they had over the years. She put her phone back in her pocket, and started to reach for the cold metal handle on the front door to go inside. Until she heard it, a scream.

Startled, Carter spun around frightened, glancing everywhere around her to find the source of the deafening scream, but it was short scream, and it stopped seconds after it began. Then it came again, a loud ear splitting shriek that filled the air that made Carter's ears ring. As it went on and on, she crouched onto the ground, covering her ringing ears to block out the blood piercing screams. It slowly started to die down, so that Carter could put down her hands. Though her ears were still ringing, it started to deafen. The screaming stopped. Carter stood up from the ground, her legs shaking from sitting on the cold ground. She glanced around, waiting for something to happen.

Nothing happened. Hesitantly, Carter started walking around the front of the school, with hundreds of questions on her mind being thought of per second. "Who was screaming?" "Why was the person screaming?" "Did anyone else hear the shrieks of terror and pain?" As Carter thought of these questions, she barely didn't notice a bright colored object sitting in the grass, that she nearly stepped on it. She took a step back, and looked down at it. It was a phone. A IPhone 4 to be exact, with a phone case with the picture of the Milky Way Galaxy on the back. Seeing the picture, Carter's breath hitched gravely, she knew whose phone this was. It wasn't any regular high school students phone, it was Alexis's phone.

"Fear" A bone chilling voice came from nowhere. Carter nearly dropped her friends phone in freight. Catching it in her hands, she spun around. And looking behind her, she saw a figure. She couldn't see it clearly, for it was in the shadows of the trees in the woods near the school grounds. But she could slightly see the outline of a person, but Carter felt that it wasn't normal, or human for that matter. Woman or man, Carter couldn't tell. It just stood there, waiting for something, or someone. Carter just stood there, holding the phone in her shaking hands due to the cold, but mostly in fear.

"W-Who are you?" she stuttered in confusion, feeling her spine tingle. The woman didn't speak, instead she turned around, and walked into the foggy woods. As Carter watched the ghostly figure fade into the dark shadows, she didn't know what to do. " Do I follow it, or not. Either way I'm going to be late for school. " she thought as she turned around to look at the front of the school, seeing other students approach the doors to the school. Looking away, Carter turned her head back to the misty woods where the figure disappeared. If she went after it, she would maybe get some answers, like how Lexi's phone got here, and who the figure was. Thinking of the pros and cons, Carter finally made a decision, follow the figure.

Cautiously, Carter stepped into the forest. Her footsteps crunching on sticks and the fallen autumn leaves into pieces. The deeper she went in, she could hear the sound of whispers everywhere around her. Carter couldn't hear them clearly, for they were talking at the same time, though she heard random words being said, such as "Death", "Leave", and "Turn Back". Half of Carter wanted to run away, and go through the doors of the safe school a couple hundred feet away, too forget about all of this. But the other half wanted to go on, and answer the questions on her mind. Her second side won, and continued on, as well as the whispering.

She approached a clearing, surrounded by trees with leaves falling to the ground. The sun lighting some patches of ground around her. Carter then noticed that the whispering stopped, in fact, there was no noise at all. No sound of birds, no sound of falling leaves. Nothing. There was silence. "Fear" Carter jumped in fright, once again to the word. She turned around, and saw the figure once again, but more clearly, since it was a few yards away from her. The person was a woman, Carter could tell from the woman's frame. A long loose cloak covered her entire body from head to toe, attached on the shoulder sleeves of a long black dress. But what was fascinating, is that the dress and cloak, seemed to dissolve into a black and grey fog once it reached the ground, so it looked like the woman was floating on a black cloud.

"Who are you!" Carter cried too the figure, with less terror than last time. Once again, the figure just stood their. "Where's Alexis!" Silence, until the woman lifted an arm, and pointed too Carter with a pale white finger. At first, Carter was confused, so she turned around, and what she saw, she wasn't expecting. A limp figure, Alexia's figure, laid on the green grass, covered in leaves, and blood. Her platinum blonde hair splayed around her head, sticky with blood the color of a dark maroon. A thick red cut, with a mix of black, covered her throat, as if it were sliced with a knife. Carter didn't go over too her friends side, she already knew she was dead by the look of her friends sapphire colored eyes, glazed with death, staring aimlessly at the blue sky.

Carter turned back at the woman, rage filling her eyes and soul. "Who are you!" Carter screamed as she took a step forward. The woman didn't even flinch, she just stood there. Until she moved towards Carter. She moved as fast as the speed of light, maybe even faster, and clutched onto Carter's throat, lifting her into the air. Carter's breath hitched, as she struggled to breath. Her throat ached for air, as the woman's pale fingers wrapped harder against her throat. As she struggled, Carter managed to say three words. "Who are you?" Taking her other arm, the woman lifted her black hood, revealing hair as black as ink. Pale white skin covered her body, with black markings covering her face and arms. And her eyes, pupils and all, were only white. The woman's eyes stared at Carter, as though they were taunting her. The woman then whispered

into her ear, something Carter would never forget.

"I...Am...Death" the woman whispered, and with a deep breath, she started inhaling black smoke coming from Carter's body. It came out of her eyes, nose, and mouth, and entered Death's body. Carter's screaming echoed through the air, as pain coursed throughout her entire body. As time passed, what felt like hours. Carter soon quieted down, as the pain lessened, black spots covering her sight as the smoke disappeared. Death let go, watching Carter's body drop to the ground wheezing, air finally filling her aching lungs. But the peace didn't last took her finger, lifting Carter's chin. "Time's up" she whispered. It took less than a second, Carter didn't even notice, until the knife entered her body, cutting a straight line down her throat, cutting her air supply. Once again, pain coursed through Carter's body. Carter laid on the ground, gasping for air. Black surrounded her vision, a bright light in the middle of it. Sighing, Carter headed towards it, as she saw Death placing her hood over her head, and walking away, as sirens wailed in the distance.


End file.
